Marking devices that imprint information from a die onto a sheet of paper or other receiving surface have been used in the art for some time. Marking devices of the prior art, for example, traditional hand stamps, originally required a user to depress the die into an ink source, where ink would be deposited onto the die, and subsequently required the user to depress the inked die onto the receiving surface. More recently, self-inking stamps utilizing a spring force and an internally-incorporated ink source have been devised. However, marking devices of the prior art suffer from a myriad of problems, especially in the context of marking devices incorporating adjustable daters or other adjustable print heads.
Marking devices incorporating adjustable print heads are most commonly used to imprint the date or other timestamp-type data. Daters of the prior art thus typically utilize bands or loops of numbers having an ink-receivable surface that is configured to be rotatable or pivotable along the print interface in order to change the value of the stamped data, wherein the print interface is the area of the die or other imprinting structure designed to contact ink and subsequently, the receiving surface in order to create an imprint or stamp on the receiving surface. For example, a first band containing the number values of 0 through 9 in combination with a second band containing the number values 0 through 9 can be configured to represent a two-digit number and therefore, can represent the days in a month. Month names and/or years can also be incorporated adjacent the numerical day value using a similar combination of print bands. Other bands are also often utilized in combination with date bands. For example, in the package delivery or shipping context, a band having the statuses of “Received,” “Shipped,” “In Process,” and “Pending,” etc. are also available and can be rotated between in order to give context to a date being stamped. Similarly, in the accounting context, statuses such as “Faxed,” “Received,” and “Paid,” etc. are likewise available. In order to adjust the print bands in daters of the prior art, a user is often required to manually rotate tiny wheels that in turn affect rotation on the date bands. This is often difficult and tedious, as the wheels are generally smaller than is comfortable to the interface of the average human finger. These wheels can often be located within a recessed housing, thus increasing the difficulty of adjustment. Additionally, a separate wheel is often linked to every adjustable band. As a result, rotation of separate wheels is typically required in order to adjust every changeable field. These wheels are often placed close together, further complicating the band adjustment process.
The user experience in daters of the prior art is further worsened by the lack of visibility into what is currently set at the print interface. As an initial matter, the adjustment wheels described above are often unlabeled. As a result, the user is often required to resort to trial and error or a recursive process of adjusting a wheel and examining the print interface in order to see which bands are being adjusted to what setting. Typically, this requires the user to invert the dater, adjust a wheel or series of wheels, while examining the print interface, which is backwards as read by the user to determine which value has been adjusted or needs further adjustment. Alternatively, this could require the user to make an impression of the current setting to ensure the correct setting has been established.
Further, on self-inking daters, a die plate is typically pivoted from a retracted, hidden from the user, inking position within the body of the dater to a forward, printing position at a distal position from the ink source. As a result, in order to see the print interface, the user must invert the dater, cause the die plate to rotate from the ink source (often by pressing the handle with one hand and stabilizing the body with the other or by pressing the handle against a flat surface), and then view the actual raised characters that are in the printing position. Additionally, the user often attempts to adjust the print bands while the dater is under this springing force, which requires two hands and specific pressure on the dater, while achieving the necessary hand-eye coordination to achieve the required results or setting. Clearly, the above described processes of inverting the dater in order to view the print interface and/or partially or fully projecting the die plate from the ink source on self-inking daters of the prior art, often while trying to adjust the print bands, combined with the forced backwards reading of the print interface are wildly inefficient.
Alternatively, a locking feature is occasionally incorporated into daters of the prior art. With such locking features, the dater can be depressed and subsequently locked with the print interface in the inverted position, thereby allowing the user to temporarily relieve the constant springing force required of the user to project the print interface. However, activating this locking feature necessarily requires an extra step when adjusting the print interface. In addition, because the user must closely examine or inspect the print interface on traditional daters in order to learn of the current position of the print bands, the risk of the user inadvertently getting ink on his fingers, clothes, or other surrounding materials is greatly increased. This problem is exacerbated in self-inking daters of the prior art where the user must press on the handle with one hand and stabilize the body with the other hand in order to rotate the die plate from the ink source (and near the user's stabilizing hand at the printing end), or activate a locking feature that keeps the die plate in the projected position. This problem is further exacerbated in daters of the prior art where adjustment wheels are located within a recessed body near the ink source.
An additional category of marking devices having adjustable print interfaces are so-called numberers. In numberers, adjustable print bands are used to apply identification numbers or numeric codes, often for product identification or packaging purposes. Numberers of the prior art typically suffer from the same problems as described above with respect to daters.
Therefore, there is a need for a self-inking marking device having adjustable print bands that allows for the efficient adjustment of print band settings and further easily allows the user to view the current print band settings.